


like they know the score

by Glisseo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 06:05:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13607130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glisseo/pseuds/Glisseo
Summary: Harry and Ginny's engagement comes as a surprise to a lot of people.





	like they know the score

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Eva Cassidy/Fleetwood Mac - 'Songbird'

**Dec 2002**  
EXCLUSIVE: THE CHOSEN ONE CHOOSES A BRIDE!  
_What’s that you hear? It’s probably the sound of hearts breaking across the wizarding world, as_ Witch Weekly _can exclusively share the news that Harry Potter is officially off the market._  
   _Sources reveal that Potter popped the question to long-term girlfriend Ginny Weasley several weeks ago._  
_“It was so romantic,” a close friend of the pair confided. “She cried. He cried. It couldn’t have been more perfect.”_  
_Potter and Weasley have been dating on and off since their school days: the Holyhead Harpies Chaser, whose lack of height is rumoured to be made up for by her “forceful” personality, is the younger sister of Potter’s trusty sidekick, Ronald Weasley. Although the two appear as close as ever to the public eye, allegedly Potter’s relationship with his best friend’s sister caused “a major rift” between the two, which has never fully healed._  
_After a forced separation during the war, the young couple reunited, keen to settle down and start their lives together. But it wasn’t all wine and roses for the pair. Sources say that the frequent and often long absences required by both Potter’s Auror work and Weasley’s career as the Holyhead Harpies’ top-scoring Chaser have, on many occasions, led to significant trouble behind the scenes of this seemingly blissful relationship._  
_“Harry works all the time,” says one, who asked not to be named. “And Ginny is often away with the team. There’s a lot of distrust there, needless to say … jealousy, you know. Who knows what really goes on abroad? It’s difficult for them.” Another source wondered if this sudden engagement might be an attempt to quell rumours of trouble in paradise._  
_But on the whole, friends and family welcome the news. The Weasleys are said to be delighted, as they have always treated Potter like another son, and look forward to officially calling him one of the family. Most are simply overjoyed to see what appears to be a happy ending for the Boy Who Lived, after such a difficult and turbulent youth. All those close to the couple are clearly hoping that the union will prove to be so, and not lead – as some predict – to more upheaval and unhappiness._  
  
_Potter and Weasley are set to tie the knot in June._

* * *

_Witch Weekly_ had a readership of around six thousand, although a number of those readers generally pretended otherwise, preferring to spell the magazine cover to look like something more intellectual - _Wizarding Financial Weekly,_ or _The Alchemist_. Still, on this particular Thursday morning, even the staunchest of pretenders were to be found discussing the startling exclusive splashed across the front cover. The lifts of the Ministry of Magic were atwitter, the news passing from floor to floor, and by lunchtime, it seemed that almost everyone (even those who did not, to put it simply, care in the slightest) knew about Harry Potter’s engagement.  
  
Harry himself had come into work early and spent much of the morning holed up in Gawain Robards’ office with a pot of coffee charmed to refill and the frustratingly scant details of a new case. As it was, he didn’t speak to another colleague until sometime after noon, partly because he needed another file, and partly because he _really_ needed the toilet.

He was washing his hands when a portly wizard from Magical Games and Sports came into the toilets, nodded at him, and then did a double-take. Behaviour like this was not especially new to Harry, though he did check his flies just in case.  
  
“Congratulations, mate,” the wizard said to him. “Got yourself a good one there!”  
  
This struck Harry as a particularly odd thing to say to someone in the toilets. He considered asking the man what he meant, but decided it was probably best not to. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know.  
  
He headed back to his office, his mind returning to the case. If there were more whispers and excited glances from people he passed than usual, he didn’t notice. Robards hailed him as soon as he stepped through the door, claiming a breakthrough, and the strange encounter in the toilets was soon forgotten.  
  
Returning to his own desk later that afternoon, a deep ache seeming to have taken up permanent residence in his neck, he was greeted by a familiar figure sitting in his chair.  
  
“Unbelievable,” said Ron.  
  
“I’ve told them about tightening security around here,” said Harry, rubbing the back of his neck. Ron showed no signs of moving, so he sat on the edge of his desk. “What’s unbelievable?”

“You!” Ron said. “Getting engaged and not telling me!”

Harry had had a lot of coffee by this point. He blinked blearily at Ron.  
  
“You what?”  
  
“Everyone’s talking about it. Apparently you cried? Why I’m the last to know, when it’s not only my best mate, but _my sister_ –”  
  
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Harry. This stopped Ron in his tracks. He peered suspiciously at Harry for a moment, before seeming to accept that he was telling the truth.  
  
“ _Witch Weekly_ said that you and Ginny are engaged …”  
  
“Oh, _Witch Weekly?_ That well-known font of reliable journalism?” said Harry sarcastically. (It did occur to him, with some relief, that this must have been what the wizard in the toilets was referring to.) “Come on, Ron, you know better than that.”  
  
Ron drummed his fingers on the desk. “So you’re _not_ getting married?”  
  
“Not as far as I know,” said Harry, spotting a fresh ink stain on his robes and scrubbing at it with his thumb. “Was that all you wanted to shout at me about?”  
  
“Er … yeah,” said Ron, looking slightly shamefaced. “Sorry, mate.”  
  
Harry waved him off amicably and took his seat back.

By the time he went home, bone-tired and weary, the conversation with Ron seemed an age ago and nothing stirred the memory as he settled in for a cosy evening with Ginny, half listening to a match on the wireless, half idly chatting about their plans for the weekend and completely oblivious to the fact that half the wizarding community was discussing their engagement.

It didn’t last long.  
  
The next morning it was Ginny who took the newspapers from the delivery owl while Harry made breakfast. He put a plate in front of her as she rustled the pages.  
  
“Thanks,” she said absently, her foot rubbing against his leg under the table. Neither of them had to be anywhere early today, and Harry was enjoying the leisurely start.  
  
Ginny made a sudden noise of mingled surprise and exasperation.  
  
“What?” said Harry, scratching the ear of the cat, who was sniffing hopefully for bacon.  
  
“We’re engaged, apparently,” Ginny said, gesturing to the page she was reading. “I had no idea. You’d think –”  
   
Yesterday’s encounter with Ron chose that moment to come flooding back into Harry’s mind.  
  
“Ah,” he said. “I – er – knew that, actually.”  
  
Ginny looked puzzled.  
  
“Ron told me … it was in _Witch Weekly_ , apparently.”  
  
“That we’re getting married?”  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
“Oh, right. Well, that’s a new one,” Ginny grinned. She went back to the papers.  
  
Harry looked at her. Really looked, at the woman sitting across from him in her Marvin Miggs pyjamas (“they’re ironic, Harry”), hair falling from an untidy plait, licking tomato sauce from her fingers as she read the sports pages, a picture of – well, happiness, that was what she was to him. She made his life better, he knew that without shadow of a doubt. He never wanted to even imagine a life without her.  
  
It was something he had known for a long time, he realised in that moment, but there had never been a call to recognise it. To act on it.  
  
“I think we should,” he said suddenly.

“We should what?”  
  
“Get married.”  
  
Ginny put down the newspaper and fixed him with a look. Her blazing look, the one that told Harry exactly how she felt about him. He felt very warm inside, although his hands had begun to tremble. Excitement, he thought. And nerves. He didn’t think she would say no, but he couldn’t help feeling slightly anxious now the moment had come.  
  
“Well, I never,” said Ginny, and her voice was slightly shaky, too, though she was smiling. “Harry Potter, are you proposing to me?”  
  
“Yes,” said Harry. “Not very well, I realise. I never really thought I’d be in my pants when I proposed.”  
  
Ginny giggled.  
  
“I don’t have a ring or anything,” he said, feeling like an idiot. “But I’ll get one, and – I just … I just looked at you, and I … knew. I want to marry you.”  
  
Ginny reached across the table and took his trembling hands in hers. Her eyes were shining with tears, even though Harry personally thought he was making a complete balls-up of the whole thing.  
  
“I want to marry you too.”  
  
(They would get married in April, blissfully happy, surrounded by friends and family and a delighted Ron as best man.  
The one thing _Witch Weekly_ got right about the proposal, in the end, was the fact that they both cried.)

* * *

  
They planned to announce the news over Sunday lunch at the Burrow, forgetting that _Witch Weekly_ had a readership of around six thousand, which included Molly Weasley.  
  
“You’re engaged!” she shrieked, within five seconds of their arrival. “Ginevra Molly Weasley, _how_ could you not tell your own _mother_ –”  
  
“Mum, give it a rest,” called Ron, rolling his eyes at Harry. “They’re not engaged.”  
  
“You’re not?” Deep disappointment flooded Molly’s face. “Oh. Well, I didn’t _really_ believe –”  
  
Harry and Ginny exchanged glances.  
  
“Er, actually …”  
 

  
  



End file.
